Campins, J. (Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia, Palma de Mallorca, Spain)
Calvo, J. (Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia, Madrid, Spain)
Jansa, A. (Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia, Palma de Mallorca, Spain)
Tramontane is one of the most important local winds of the Western Mediterranean, for its intensity, frequency and extension. It starts at the eastern edge of the Pyrenees, spreads into de Mediterranean and reaches, sometimes, the Northern part of the Balearic Islands.
The PYREX Experiment has provided an important dataset about the interaction between the atmospheric flow and the main range of the Pyrenees. In previous works, it was proved that this interaction produces a dipolar pressure structure which causes a strong pressure gradient at the eastern edge of the Pyrenees. That gradient produces an intense acceleration of the flow, and so the Tramontane. After, the flow spreads into the Mediterranean in an inertial way.
In the present study, the principal characteristics of Tramontane are studied by means of three-dimensional simulations with HIRLAM model for two Tramontane cases during the PYREX experiment.